One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer

by Nathaniel Fick

The New York Times bestseller that “provides a close-up and often harrowing look at Fick’s service both in Iraq and Afghanistan” (U.S. News & World Report).   If the Marines are “the few, the proud,” Recon Marines are the fewest and the proudest. Nathaniel Fick’s career begins with a hellish summer at Quantico, after his junior year at Dartmouth. He leads a platoon in Afghanistan just after 9/11 and advances to the pinnacle—Recon— two years later, on the eve of war with Iraq. His vast skill set puts him in front of the front lines, leading twenty-two Marines into the deadliest conflict since Vietnam. He vows to bring all his men home safely, and to do so he’ll need more than his top-flight education. Fick unveils the process that makes Marine officers such legendary leaders and shares his hard-won insights into the differences between military ideals and military practice, which can mock those ideals.   In this deeply thoughtful account of what it’s like to fight on today’s front lines, Fick reveals the crushing pressure on young leaders in combat. Split-second decisions might have national consequences or horrible immediate repercussions, but hesitation isn’t an option. One Bullet Away never shrinks from blunt truths, but ultimately it is an inspiring account of mastering the art of war.   “Fick’s writing style sets this book apart from other accounts of recent conflicts and guarantees One Bullet Away a place in the war memorial hall of fame.”—USA Today “What One Bullet Away accomplishes, in a way all the blather on cable TV never will, is to give readers real insights into the modern war and its warriors.”—Rocky Mountain News

Genres: Military Fiction, Nonfiction, War, History, Memoir, Military History, Biography

397 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Nathaniel Fick was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1977. He graduated with high honors from Dartmouth College in 1999, earning degrees in Classics and Government. While at Dartmouth, Fick captained the cycling team to a US National Championship, and wrote a senior thesis on Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War and its implications for American foreign policy.

In 1998, after his junior year at Dartmouth, Fick attended the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidates School and was commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduating college the following year.

Fick led his platoon into Afghanistan only weeks after 9/11, helping to drive the Taliban from its spiritual capital in Kandahar. After returning to the States in 2002, he was invited to join Recon, the Corps' special operations force. Fick led a reconnaissance platoon in combat during the earliest months of Operation Iraqi Freedom, from the battle of Nasiriyah to the fall of Baghdad, and into the perilous peacekeeping that followed.

Fick and his platoon were the subjects of a series of articles in Rolling Stone and the book Generation Kill by the embedded journalist Evan Wright. The articles won the National Magazine Award in 2003. Generation Kill was adapted by David Simon and Ed Burns into a miniseries of the same name for HBO, in which Fick was portrayed by actor Stark Sands

Fick left the Marines as a captain in 2003 After leaving the Marines, Fick used the GI Bill to attend Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School.

Fick became the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the Center for a New American Security in 2008 and later was appointed CEO in June 2009.

Endgame's endpoint security platform is widely deployed across commercial and government customers. In 2018, Endgame was named one of the "100 Best Cloud Companies in the World" by Forbes, and Nate was recognized by Fast Company Magazine as one of the "Most Creative People in Business."

He comments frequently in the media on technology and national security matters, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.

He appears regularly on business television, including CNBC and Bloomberg TV. Fick has testified before the United States Senate on Iraq and spoke at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver on August 28, 2008, the night Barack Obama accepted the presidential nomination.

Fick was elected to Dartmouth College's Board of Trustees in April 2012. He also serves on the Military & Veterans Advisory Council at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

He resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Margaret Angell, and two daughters.

Reviews

[Petra Summer's over, just one last flight home · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a man with an intellectual bent who really wants to be a soldier and get that adrenaline rush from actually fighting and isn't ashamed of it, isn't covering it up with "I want to give back to my country" actually he does, but not enough to matter then you could expect a good read. And that's what you get.

Sebastian Jung's War was the best book I've ever read on understanding why boys want to go to be soldiers, through all the extreme hardships of training, and to fight and maybe lose their lives. But Jung wasn't a soldier. Nate Fick explains it from a soldier's point of view.

It's not quite the full-on detail of the amazing American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History by the tragically murdered Chris Kyle, but it's still plenty of blow-by-blow fighting. The appalling hardships of training are gleefully related. What we see as pain and suffering marines see as proof of their hardness, just how damn macho they really are.

We've all read and seen the documentaries and lately reality tv of the training of marines, but Fick goes one step further and makes you understand by examples exactly what situation the training prepared them for. Even the not-washing and not-changing-clothes for weeks, more than a month, is prepared for. How else could you put up with that?

The book is a bit uneven and there are tedious bit that made my eyes glaze over, but Fick is a wonderful writer, and that lifted the book, one of many military memoirs to a new level.So if a book is the sum of its parts, it's a 4 star, but if it's judged by the overall experience and what I got from it, it's definitely a 5 star.

Short note on reading This is really good. Puts me in mind of Sebastian Junger's War. Not so philosophical and more action though.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Soldiering has one great trap...To be a good soldier you must love the army. But to be a good officer you must be willing to order the death of the thing you love. This is...a very hard thing to do. No other profession requires it. That is one reason why there are so few good officers. Although there are many good men."
-- Michael Schaara, The Killer Angels

My friend overnighted this book to me when I told him I was joining the National Guard. He told me to read it before making a decision. He hoped that by reading it, I would be change my mind. It didn't exactly happen like that; rather, when I finished, I felt kind of bad about myself, like I'd failed some ineffable duty. Still, I didn't join the Guard, but not because of anything I've read. In the end, it came down to the fact that the Guard's loan repayment plan is paltry, and I would've gone underwater on my debt while in training. (There's also a better, funnier story about why I didn't join, which involves a long night at the bar and the Guard physical scheduled the next day, but I won't go into that).

Nathaniel Fick went through with it, though. He joined the Marines, via officer candidacy school, after graduating from Dartmouth. This memoir tells of his journey from lesser-Ivy League (take that, Dartmouth!) English major to OCS to SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, escape) to Afghanistan to Iraq to home. It does a good job of capturing the little details of soldiering, and highlighting the dichotomy between two very separate worlds: that of soldiers and civilians.

The subtitle of the book is "The Making of a Marine Corps Officer." This implies that the book provides some sort of template, which is just not the case. Fick is unlike any soldier I've ever met - and I've lived and been friends with my share of soldiers. He brings to his experiences, and this memoir, a liberal sensitivity (with the requisite lethality, of course) that is missing in most military men. He doesn't join the Marines out of monetary necessity, to pay for college, or because he doesn't have any other options. He joined the Marines because he really believed in their ethos of duty, honor and country. But he's not some Reagan-era-Red-Dawn-Watching-2nd-Amendment-Glorifying-Wannabe-GI Joe. Rather, he seems to be a really smart guy with a fine-tuned sense of duty (and also, I think, a bit of intellectual curiosity about the military). When he enlists, in the far-away days of peace we knew in the late 90's, his father tells him that: "The Marines will teach you everything I love you too much to teach you."

The book is divided into two main sections, Peace and War. The first section is shorter, as Fick breezes through OCS and infantry training. The second half of the book begins with the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks. Fick goes to Afghanistan where, frankly, nothing much really happens. He joins a Marine reconaissance batallion, and then is sent to Iraq. This is where the bulk of the story takes place, as Fick and his recon platoon race towards Baghdad (coincidentally, Rolling Stone reporter Evan Wright was embedded with Fick's platoon, codenamed Hitman 2, and he featured them in his book Generation Kill, making Hitman 2 the most written-about and televised group of soldiers since Easy Company of the 501st, who have been immortalized by Stephen Ambrose in Band of Brothers).

Fick is a fine, easy-to-read writer. He keeps things simple and informative, with a good memory for dialogue (or a good ear for making up dialogue) and a keen sense of telling details. With his Dartmouth degree going to waste, he is fond of literary allusions. He never gives any details of his personal life, save an offhand reference to a girlfriend, so he remains elusive as a person, and a blank slate as a narrator.

That doesn't stop him from giving his opinions, however. Throughout the book, he peppers his story with his personal perspective on events. For instance, after a visit to the site of the former World Trade Center (the so-called "Ground Zero"), he derides the empty patriotism of the SUV-driving-yellow-bumper-sticker-they-won't-destroy-our-way-of-life crowd. During his time in Iraq, he is critical of the blunt instruments of modern warfare, which killed and injured the very civilian populace the American military was trying to "liberate." He also discretely chides his superiors, especially his captain, whom he pointedly does not mention by name.

It's true that every soldier fights a limited war. The things Fick sees are his entire universe, and expand to fill his imagination, even though it is a much smaller part of the whole. In other words, the sense of a soldier is that he is at the center of the war, when in fact, history may relegate him and his companions to the periphery.

To be sure, Hitman 2 is not Ambrose's "Band of Brothers." These are not guys out saving the world. They are not even seriously challenged (the story takes place during the initial invasion of Iraq, before IEDs and quagmires and the long, bloody summer of 2006). This is not to say Fick and his men weren't in danger, because they were, and they faced it bravely; however, he went to war with 65 men, and all of them came home alive. Most of the time, the Iraqi Army does not put up much of a fight. The most memorable incidents of this book take place outside of combat, such as when the platoon comes upon wounded children. There is an especially harrowing scene when Fick's battalion commander, Major Benelli, refuses to evacuate a wounded girl. Breaching his self-imposed rule about not naming names, Fick directly addresses his smirking commander:

I felt impotent, but I wasn't powerless. I had an assault rifle in my hands. I could shoot the motherf****r. I could hold him hostage until he called in that helicopter.

There is also a marvelous scene where Sergeant Colbert, hero of the HBO miniseries Generation Kill, cooly blows up an unexploded RGP round that had landed in a man's yard. Though doing so was against orders, Fick realizes this is an instance to do some lasting good.

Though his men didn't fight any pitched battles, Fick does an especially good job describing modern combat, as in this scene where his men fire on a truck that refuses to stop at a checkpoint:

In slow motion, I watch .50-caliber tracers and Mark-19 rounds arcing over the truck. It closed the gap on the gunners faster than they could lower their guns. For a second, I thought he'd run right into us. The gunners corrected, and grenades exploded against the grille and windshield as armor-piercing incendiary machine gun rounds ripped the cab apart...Still the truck rushed closer...I jammed the rifle stock into my shoulder and flipped the selector level to 'burst'...I aimed low, at the middle of the grille, knowing the shots would float upward toward the windshield. The rifle stuttered, three little kicks at a time.

The end of the book finds Fick returning home and resigning so he can go to grad school (Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government, natch). It's a short, interesting, provocative section. There is Fick swerving as he goes beneath underpasses, because in Iraq, grenades were often dropped from them. There is Fick, answering questions from an admissions officer, who wanted to know about something he'd said that appeared in Rolling Stone ("Do I feel compelled to explain myself to you? I don't"). There is Fick taking a friend to Antietam, which gives him a chance to be ostentatiously rueful about his experiences, and subtly belittle the "civvie" who doesn't understand. There is Fick getting pissed about people who thanked him for his service.

This section really calls to mind a fascinating and important questions about military and civilian roles in a democracy. I've never served in the military. Like I said, the closest I came was that National Guard recruiting office. I respect what soldiers do; and I am also very wary of what they do. Undue deference leads to bad policy, which should go without saying.

I grew a little wary of Fick's mindset, that of superior knowledge, which however natural and psychologically explicable, leads to a growing gulf between the military and the civilian population. The wider the gulf, the worse the policy choices.

In college, I lived with a ROTC student, and I can't even count the number of times my former roomate-now-Army-lieutenant and I got into political debates. Without fail, at some point in the argument (right around the time I had eviscerated him with my slashing logic) he'd riposte to the effect that: "You have no right to say that about the Army because the Army has given you the right to say that."

It's a dangerous bit of self-indulgence on the part of the military to believe they are protecting or even giving us rights, thus giving them some control over them. It smacks of praetorianism. The last section of One Bullet Away shows that even the most enlightened, liberal thinker can fall prey to that reasoning. That should be enough to give anyone pause.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a retired Marine officer myself, I believe this may be the best job I've seen yet of getting inside the mind of a Marine leader. Nathaniel Fick is smart, caring, conscientious, brave, and introspective. Upon leaving the Corps he went to grad school with the goal of getting into politics, and I hope to hear his name a lot in the years to come - he has much more to give our country.
Incidentally, in another book titled Generation Kill, you can get the perspective of a reporter attached to Lt. Fick's unit on his character and performance during the same period Fick writes about in One Bullet Away; he earned that writer's liking and respect too.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer is a narrative on the military and war from an Ivy League liberal arts major. With Lt Nathaniel Fick’s background in the classics, I was hoping for a mix of real experience and historical interpretation of his experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq. He focuses more on the experience and not on the wider view. Still, it was a well-written account of joining the military and going to war from a segment of society that is much more focused on getting rich on Wall Street or joining law firms to make a big killing than serving the nation. Nate Fick’s background made him more open to military service and he joined at exactly the right time to be in the vanguard going to war after 9/11.

I most enjoyed his descriptions of entering the military and his progress through basic and follow on training. I’ve been through enlisted and officer basic training and his description of the purposeful craziness had me rolling on the floor. One thing for sure, Marine training is probably the toughest around.

In the middle of his first sea cruise, 9/11 occurs and his unit is sent to support the Afghanistan campaign. He goes into Pakistan and then into the Kandahar area, supporting but not involved in any of the major actions. Returning from Afghanistan, he is reassigned from command of an infantry platoon to a reconnaissance platoon, extending his opportunity to command at the “point of the spear”. That is where he is when Iraqi Freedom occurs. He takes us through the battles from Kuwait to Baghdad, concentrating on the day-to-day operations. No big picture on this war, just what he and his platoon went through. It was interesting to see his perspective when he finds out his unit was the feint towards Baquoba for a move towards Baghdad. It was a good strategic move but his view on risking his men’s lives for a fake attack was revealing. After returning from Iraq, he leaves the military and gives a clear, simple description of PTSD and how it affected him.

Nate Fick’s view of the Marine Corps is very positive as he looks down the chain at his enlisted force and is mostly negative as he looks up the chain. I have known some excellent Marine officers and have not met the type of “tactical incompetents” he describes. His high opinion of the enlisted force continues to the end, backed up with plenty of examples in combat. This book is not so much about combat post 9/11 but about how tough it is to be in combat and stay alert, focused while observing all the rules of engagement. 5 Stars for the pre 9/11 and 3 stars for the post 9/11, leaving me at the 4 Star level.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nate is one of my favorite characters in Generation Kill, so when I realized that he had written a book of his very own that treated on some of the same events, I snapped it up immediately. I like Nate because he is an officer and a gentleman, a Dartmouth classics major who joined the Marine Corps in a fit of idealism, and one of only two competent officers portrayed in Generation Kill. Why I love Nate can be best understood first hand.

The rules of engagement harked back to my college classes on Saint Augustine and "just war" theory. I couldn't control the justice of the declaration of war, but I could control the justice of its conduct within my tiny sphere of influence. Doing right, I thought, wasn't only a moral imperative but also the most expedient way to lead the platoon."

This book is about Nate's journey from making the decision to join the Corps, through Afghanistan, the Basic Recon Course, and Iraq. It is well worth reading as an excellent first person account of life in the modern military, but I think those who have read Generation Kill may find it most rewarding. The discrepancies between the two accounts are fascinating. Some can be explained simply by the way Fick is more gentle with his fellow officers than Wright was inclined to be--he never, for instance, calls out Captain America for his insane cowardice--but in some places the two stories are genuinely different. As Tim O'Brien teaches us, "there is no such thing as a true war story."

Well written, exciting, thoughtful, informative, and interesting, this book is an absolute must read for anyone who liked Generation Kill, is curious about how exactly the military works, or claimed citizenship in the United States of America during 2002-2003.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a terrific book. As good as Generation Kill for me (Generation Kill having profiled Lt N. Fick as one of the Platoon that Evan Wright embedded with). I would highly recommend that if the reader of this review has not read Generation Kill, then read it before or after reading One Bullet Away. The two different perspectives were fascinating.
What Generation Kill never touched on however, was how Lt Nathaniel Fick evolved. The early days of his career. His training, his deployment to Afghanistan, was, upon finishing this book, probably more interesting to me than his time in Iraq.
5 star book, Nathaniel Fick!

[Ron Wroblewski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can really identify with this bool. Nate was a new Marine Lieutenant when 911 hit. He served in both Afghanistan and Iraq as a recon Patron Commander. I served as a New Marine Lieutenant in Vietman.

One difference is t hat he patrolled in Humvees, while I patrolled via helicopters and on foot.

He brough all his men home and so did I.

Excellent read.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book twice now and I have enjoyed it both times. The author is very good at his narration, and is neither ultra gung-ho nor cynically going through the motions. Mr. Fick is a Marine; a thoughtful Marine and one whose sense of duty is deeply held and not the product of jingoism or testosterone laden "hoo-rah" culture.

In short, I enjoyed the heck out of this book and would heartily recommend it. There are plenty of books that delineate and define how the strategic battles of the Afghan and Iraq wars were lost (I'm looking at you Misters Rumsfeld and Franks), but few who put into perspective the squad level view on the ground of these conflicts.

[Julia Chenoweth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-reading. This was the book was convinced me to stay at usna and commission back in the marine corps. Now I think it convinced me to get out.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a former Marine officer's account of the early war on terrorism through two combat tours in the Middle East. It covers the training and deployments cycles that occur in the military. It also highlights the small percentage of Marines who are more concerned with playing the political game. It does a decent job of showing the need to care for those below you and training them to be able to replace you which is an old Marines Corps standard. Semper Fedelis.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A first hand account experience of a young Officer with a Marine Recon Unit in the invasion of Iraq after 9-11. The author sounds authentic, believable, and his account jives with that of friends of mine who also were there. As a fellow servicemember I salute him for his good and faithful service to our country. I passed this book on to my Marine Son-in-law and he enjoyed reading it, too.

By the way... that's a great title isn't it?

[John Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.andalittlewine.blogspot.com/2012/08/book-review-one-bullet-away-by.ht...

In his memoir One Bullet Away, Nate Fick shares his story of joining the Marine Corps as an officer, and deploying just before the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Fick's story, told in ways that are both too glib and too frank, confuses the hell out of me.

I understand the call to serve. I understand the frustration that clearly mounts as he is thrust into war zones, in Afghanistan and again in Iraq, that his training did not fully prepare him for by commanders more interested in jockeying for promotion than in the safety of Fick's platoon.

But I don't understand who Fick was writing for. Who does he think will love his book?

Fick starts off with a glorification of war, of the Marines, of martial life that is, to me, off-putting. "The grunt life was untainted," he writes. "Being a Marine... was a rite of passage in a society becoming so soft and homogenized that the very concept was often sneered at." I could spend all day trying to unpack what Fick means by "soft," but I think the quote shares the flavor of the opening chapters, and the hard-soft motif resurfaces throughout the memoir's nearly 400 pages.

Fick handles death lightly. All of his platoon members survive his tour in Iraq, though some are wounded or killed later. The people who die are enemies, othered, and largely nondescript. Threats among the Marines to kill each other if they screw up, as Fick does when one of his men offers to blow an undetonated bomb, are common. But the story lacks the grittiness, the nastiness of military memoirs that have lately been turned into successful movies.

But as much as Fick loves the Marines, his platoon, his life as a soldier, he ultimately leaves the Corps because of its seemingly mindless bureaucracy. He leaves because he can't imagine putting himself back in harms way if he is surrounded by the kind of people he served his first Iraq deployment with- the idiots who drive down every road with guns blazing, endangering allies and civilians, or the ladder climbing fools who want to call in air support strikes simply become another company had called one earlier. So the book is not written, I think, for the military enthusiast.

Fick makes a compelling case for the re-assessment of American readiness. "I was noticing a trend in my career: train to lead a rifle platoon, but get a weapons platoon; train to raid the coastline in rubber boats, but go to war in a landlocked country; train to jump into patrols via parachute, but use boots or Humvees in the real world." Fick chooses to see this train for Plan A, fight with Plan B as "a tribute to flexibility," but given the dysfunction evident throughout his dealings with military command, it smacks of mismanagement.

[N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nate Fick seems like a classy guy and this is a classy, classy book. After graduating with a degree in Classics from Dartmouth, Fick joined the US Marine Corps as an officer candidate. While his friends when to med school, law school or became “consultants” (as Fick points out, what exactly can a 22-year-old consult on?), he became a peacetime officer who was abruptly thrust into wartime after September 11.

After serving in Afghanistan, Fick joined the infamously-tough First Reconnaissance Battalion. One of the book’s most powerful sequences involves Fick’s training to become the so-called ‘point of the Marines’ spear’. He deliberately marks down water-based training as his last pick – and, of course, because a First Recon Marine must be trained to do exactly what he hates, he spends a couple of weeks being forced to perform tasks underwater or in stormy seas, until the fear of drowning is beaten out of him.

The final part of Fick’s memoir, recounting his experience as a first lieutenant during the 2003 Iraq invasion, will be familiar to readers of Evan Wright’s Generation Kill. Fick gives a more personally-focused (and more balanced) account of what happened, which is, perhaps inevitably, less interesting.

I enjoyed this book a lot – though I found the military experiences rather blended together, especially due to the sheer size of the book (hint: it’s long). I preferred Fick’s more personal and philosophical reflections to the raw action of the book, but that's probably just because I’m more interested in people than warriors. ;)

The fact that Fick is a former Classics student gives the book a genuine lift. Fick’s prose is always meditative and frequently beautiful. That said, Fick remains carefully neutral on most political subjects, which makes for slightly frustrating reading – sometimes you just want Fick to stand up and give a candid opinion.

[Judy P. Sprout · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this book a while ago, maybe a couple years after it came out. Abandoned it halfway through and sortof kindof meant to get back to it, maybe, when I felt like it.

Then I got recruited for a position at some rando network security company, clicked around their website, saw their CEO was some dude named Nathaniel Fick and did a serious double-take. Not that Nathaniel Fick, surely. Oh, but yes. So I started over from zero & pushed past the place where I left off, somewhere in Afghanistan.

Fick captures what it's like to try to be honorable in a situation that's gone toe-up. He is clearly smart and articulate, lays it out well. And you might never know that what he wrote is inadequate until you read Generation Kill, a much stronger retelling of the beginning of Iraqi Freedom. In contrast and hindsight, One Bullet Away is wan, boring. Idealist boyscout shit.

You should read it anyway.

NOTE: Rejected whole idea of job; culture mismatch.

[Michael Flanagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book that for some reason did not quite gel with me. After watching the T.V series Generation kill this book offered the story from a marines point of view. While the book was an engaging read for me it lacked spark that makes a good book a great one.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

A direct and clearheaded account of one man's transformation from civilian to marine officer, layered alongside vivid descriptions of the tip of the spear's combat experience immediately post-9/11. Fick's journey is in many ways unique; he's selected for one of the rarest occupational specialities in the marines (a rare feat in and of itself) months after graduation from Darmouth, not the usual pipeline for military careers. Fick's closest friends were preparing for graduate school and consulting jobs while he was packing up for Quantico, and this disconnect alone makes his perspective on his journey unique. Throughout the book, but especially in the early chapters, Fick reflects on the ostensible disjuncture between his background and his career interests. This reflection is not self-pitying nor is it disparaging of the classmates, family, and friends whose reactions range from incomprehension and shock to bewildered but steadfast support. Fick's ability to simply describe his consequential sense of cognitive dissonance as he straddles two very different worlds is admirable and refreshing, and his feelings of quiet solitude (but not alienation) ring true. He doesn't attempt to draw any grand conclusions about the state of civil-military relations, but rather sticks to laying out his personal goals, struggles, values, and an examination of how all three change, conflict, and evolve.

Fick's thoughts on leadership are similarly simple, but powerful, as the actions he recounts prove their validity. He describes how the marines under his command expected "competence, courage, and consistency" from their leaders. Throughout the events described in the book, Fick meets these expectations and exceeds them, persistently noting "we can't control the missions we get, only how we execute them." Fick's ability to elevate others' needs over his own and to make difficult calls in the midst of chaos show how, especially in the Marine Corps' context of decentralized command, an individual's actions and values matter.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best memoirs I've ever read. Fascinating insight into the Marine culture.

[Ratijn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would've liked more Fruity Rudy..

[Giulio Ciacchini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leadership Under Fire: A War Memoir Without Illusions
There are countless books about war, but relatively few about leadership. "One Bullet Away" stands out because it is not primarily a story of combat, heroism, or politics. It is the story of a young Marine officer learning what it means to be responsible for other people's lives.
Fick takes the reader from the brutal selection and training of the U.S. Marine Corps, reminiscent of the legendary Goggins, to the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Rather than glorifying war, he focuses on the countless decisions an officer must make under uncertainty, where incomplete information, chance, and human error are often more decisive than firepower. The title itself captures this reality: in combat, everyone is only one bullet away from death.
One of the book's greatest strengths is its balance. Fick clearly admires the Marine Corps and the professionalism it instills, but he is far from uncritical. He openly acknowledges poor leadership, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and questionable strategic decisions from higher command. At the same time, he avoids turning the memoir into a political statement. This restraint makes the narrative more credible: he describes what he saw, what he did, and what he learned, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions.
Even though he is critical at times, he is a very diplomatic narrator.
Unsurprisingly at the end of the book we discover that he left the Marine.
The real subject of the book is leadership. Fick repeatedly confronts difficult questions: How do you earn the trust of your men? When should you challenge an order? How much risk is acceptable to accomplish a mission? The psychological burden of command emerges as far more significant than the firefights themselves. Every decision carries the possibility of irreversible consequences, and the book never lets the reader forget that.
What I appreciated most is that the memoir never romanticizes combat. Unlike many military books, there are no invincible heroes or dramatic speeches. War is presented as confusion, exhaustion, fear, logistics, luck, and responsibility. Success often depends less on bravery than on preparation, discipline, and good judgment.
I would suggest it to everyone who would like to join the army, it is such a reality check.
One among all, this passage is striking because it completely overturns the stereotypical image of military training. Instead of teaching Marines how to kill, Dr. DiGiovanni is teaching them how to survive psychologically after killing.
The instructor rejects the myth that soldiers naturally become desensitized to violence. Instead, he assumes that killing is traumatic for psychologically healthy people and that pretending otherwise only increases the risk of long-term psychological injury. It is a remarkably human perspective, acknowledging that the goal is not to eliminate conscience but to prevent it from being destroyed.

"Good morning, Marines." Dr. DiGiovanni spoke with solemn control. "My nickname is unfortunate, because my job is to help keep you and your troops alive."
He defined "killology" as the study of healthy people's reactions to killing. Its corollaries are the factors that enable killing and the maintenance of psychiatric health during prolonged exposure to mortal danger. DiGiovanni explained that an infantryman's effectiveness is more fundamental than his ability to shoot a rifle or carry a heavy pack. All else is predicated on psychiatric health. He identified five things an infantry leader can do to help maintain the psychiatric effectiveness of his men in combat: minimize fatigue by sleeping whenever possible, build confidence as a team, encourage communication, use spare time to practice emergency medical training, and do after-action critiques to address the shock of combat and killing.
"And trust me, gentlemen, it will be a shock," he said.
A slide projector whirred to life, casting a square of blank light on the screen at the front of the room. DiGiovanni explained that the first step toward understanding the topic was exposure to violent death.
"The pictures you are about to see are very graphic. Young infantry officers, like yourselves, in Vietnam."

The writing is clear, concise, and refreshingly free of unnecessary embellishment. Fick explains military procedures and operations without overwhelming the reader with jargon, making the book accessible even to those with little knowledge of the military. His style mirrors the values he admires in good officers: direct, disciplined, and thoughtful.

The only part that lost me somewhat was the big section on the invasion of Iraq. After the interesting opening chapters and the account of Afghanistan, the narrative becomes a long sequence of patrols, firefights, checkpoints, and tactical engagements. While these episodes accurately convey the repetitive nature of war, I found myself skimming many of the details because they began to feel too similar. This is perhaps inevitable in a faithful military memoir, but it slightly weakens the pacing of the second half.
What I appreciated most, however, is what the book doesn't do. It is not militaristic propaganda, nor is it a simplistic celebration of American exceptionalism. Fick clearly believes in his Marines and in the professionalism of the institution he serves, but he is also honest about its shortcomings and the confusion of the wars themselves. As a reader who is skeptical of war and of the tendency to portray the United States as the unquestionable "good guy," I felt at times that the memoir was trying to convince me of that narrative. It offers the perspective of an officer who sincerely believes he is serving his country while recognizing that the broader political decisions and strategic outcomes are far more ambiguous.

This passage captures one of the central themes of One Bullet Away: leadership is often about managing emotions before managing operations.
Fick has just learned of the 9/11 attacks, yet his first instinct is not to express his own fear or anger but to steady his Marines. His calm is not spontaneous, it is deliberate. He understands that, as a leader, his emotional state will become the emotional state of the platoon. When he notices the "worry lines" disappearing from their faces, he realizes that leadership is contagious: confidence, like panic, spreads from the top down.
The line about revenge is particularly interesting. At first glance it sounds like a patriotic rallying cry, but in context it serves a different purpose. Fick isn't trying to glorify retaliation; he's giving his Marines a sense of purpose at a moment when they feel helpless and confused. It is less about hatred than about channeling raw emotion into professional resolve.

"Fellas, get some rest," I said evenly. "I'm sure the ship's e-mail will be shut down pretty soon, so try to get a message off to let your families know you're OK. I don't know how this affects our plans, but I'm sure we'll have more information tomorrow."
Captain Whitmer's calming effect was contagious. I could see that my reaction surprised them. Already, the worry lines began to disappear. Before dismissing the platoon, I turned it up just a little bit. "When the shock wears off, we're gonna be pissed. Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll be the ones to get revenge for this."
It resonated with them, and I saw a flicker of resolve. My emotion surprised me. Looking at the Marines, I saw football stars and thugs and baby-faced eighteen-year-olds. Black and white and Hispanic. They were my platoon, my men, my responsibility. Ruefully, I remembered Staff Sergeant Marine's comment about golden memories and no ghosts.
"Semper fi. Dismissed."
I stood on the dark deck and looked out over the lights of Darwin for a minute before slowly climbing the superstructure to my stateroom. There was an e-mail message from my dad. "Stand tall," it read, "but come home physically and psychologically intact." When I woke at six, we were already out of sight of land, three hours before our scheduled departure.

What has aged poorly is the opening justification: "threatened the world with weapons of mass destruction." Knowing that no stockpiles of WMD were found, this line becomes a reminder of how political narratives can shape military action. Whether the intelligence failures were the result of honest mistakes, confirmation bias, or deliberate manipulation remains debated by historians, but the consequence is clear: thousands of soldiers went to war believing they were confronting an imminent strategic threat that did not exist as presented.
Perhaps the greatest irony is that the speech's ethical guidance remains admirable even if its strategic premise proved deeply flawed. The call to protect civilians, think before shooting, and "keep your honor clean" retains its moral value regardless of whether the war itself was justified. In that sense, the passage highlights a timeless tension: soldiers may conduct themselves honorably within a conflict whose political justification later comes to be questioned. Recognizing that distinction is essential both for understanding the Iraq War and for evaluating memoirs like One Bullet Away, which are ultimately about the experience of those asked to fight rather than those who chose the war.

For decades, Saddam Hussein has tortured, imprisoned, raped and murdered the Iraqi people; invaded neighboring countries without provocation; and threatened the world with weapons of mass destruction. The time has come to end his reign of terror. On your young shoulders rest the hopes of mankind.
When I give you the word, together we will cross the Line of Departure, close with those forces that choose to fight, and destroy them.
Our fight is not with the Iraqi people, nor is it with members of the Iraqi army who choose to surrender. While we will move swiftly and aggressively against those who resist, we will treat all others with decency, demonstrating chivalry and soldierly compassion for people who have endured a lifetime under Saddam's oppression.
Chemical attack, treachery, and use of the innocent as human shields can be expected, as can other unethical tactics. Take it all in stride. Be the hunter, not the hunted: never allow your unit to be caught with its guard down. Use good judgment and act in the best interests of our Nation.
You are part of the world's most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon. Share your courage with each other as we enter the uncertain terrain north of the Line of Departure. Keep faith in your comrades on your left and right and Marine Air overhead. Fight with a happy heart and strong spirit.
For the mission's sake, our country's sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division's colors in past battles who fought for life and never lost their nerve carry out your mission and keep your honor clean. Demonstrate to the world that there is "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy" than a U.S. Marine.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book came to my attention after Generation Kill (both the landmark work of war reportage by Evan Wright and the equally-acclaimed narrative miniseries by Susanna White and Simon Cellan Jones). Nathaniel Fick was a key figure in both, being the commander of the platoon with whom Wright was embedded in 2003. Whilst not essential, I’d recommend getting the immediate context in which Fick is writing - that is, one in which Wright’s book (which reports some of the same events from a different angle) has quickly become a bestseller.

I am about as ardently anti-militarist as it is possible to be - it is more than likely that most of those who accompanied Fick on his tours of Afghanistan and Iraq would not think particularly highly of me. Fick himself probably wouldn’t be full of praise for my perspective on the nature of ‘comradeship’ which does a lot of the motivating work here. From the outside looking in, it appears fundamentally exploitative, despite (or perhaps because of) the bonds it forms through extreme psychological duress. Many veterans I am sure would disagree. That doesn’t matter - what I appreciate here is the honesty of intention behind this book. It reads as an account imbued with self-reflection, which attempts to face up to what happened to the person who graduated college to join a group of men he saw as ‘warrior-heroes’. It is human, and humanising. To a remarkable extent, it avoids employing a moralising meta-narrative, and leaves the people of Iraq as they appeared to Fick himself: hidden from view, except from flashes of suffering, anger, fear.

Fick does not hide his confusion about what he did - nor does he attempt to hide the pride and loyalty he feels towards the military, however chilling it appears to us. I do think, as another reviewer has mentioned, that as the book continues we see more and more of the hubris, bordering on arrogance, that Jack Nicholson’s Col. Jessup most famously articulates in A Few Good Men (1992):

“I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.”

Compare Fick’s encounter with a graduate admissions officer:

“You’re quoted as saying, ‘The bad news is, we don’t get much sleep tonight; the good news is, we get to kill people.’ […] Could you please explain that quote for me?”
“No, I cannot.”
“Well, do you really feel that way?”
“You mean, will I climb your clock tower and pick people off with a hunting rifle? […] No, I will not. Do I feel compelled to explain myself to you? I don’t.”

Not identical, by any means. But Fick’s response is worrying - a question he later derides as motivated by ‘ignorance’ is one which touches the very heart of his own avowed motivations in understanding the experience of military service. It is a question to which there is a very, very simple answer - and the fact that he refuses to provide it speaks volumes. Acknowledging the author’s own uncertainty is the true strength of One Bullet Away, but sometimes that strength conspicuously fades.

The only thing that’s missing now is Tony Espera’s book - one day, perhaps.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this book down, but I didn't want it to end. Captain Fick gives equal attention to the tactical and logistical challenges of war, and the moral and ethical ones. A classics major with all the historical and philosophical lessons and ideas of a first-rate liberal arts education in his thinking, he is also a highly trained warrior. He shows a belief in and dedication to the highest ideals of the Marine Corps, with a practical grasp of all the ways in which the reality can and sometimes does fall short of those ideals. His perspective was fascinating, candid about the ugliness and the terrible allures of war, and heartening in some ways, but also illustrated the importance of good and conscientious leadership to the well-being of all. If all the decision-makers shared more of Fick's qualities, I think we'd all be better off.

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Give me a new appreciation for being a Platoon Commander. Wasn’t overly motivational or fake where I cannot relate to it. I enjoyed learning about those original pushes into Afghanistan and Iraq from this level of leadership and seeing how some things will never change in the Corps. Throughout all, it is evident how much he trusted his GySgt and how much he loves his Marines. I appreciated the thoughtful reflections on each of his decision and the raw honesty of having to decide on the spot and later question your own decisions. As well as having to disagree with senior officers to protect those you’re entrusted to lead. He captured the loneliness of being an officer, and not being able to completely relate to those that you lead but doesn’t dwell on it. Overall so many aspects of leadership that don’t get talked about enough in military books, true or fiction. Garrison or combat.

[Ana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had great hopes for this book after hearing an interview with the author on NPR. The book is pretty long and after having it for 6 weeks from the library, I couldn't bring myself to finish it. The book does a good job in describing the training of Marines and officers, and a partially good job in describing what they go through in battle, but otherwise it's slow and somewhat boring. It's unsettling to find out just how dumb a lot of the Marine commanders are.

I would not recommend this book although it's not horrible. I hope there are better books out there on this subject (an interesting one to me) who are a better read.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining read, but written by someone with an obviously over-inflated opinion of himself. As a Marine Infantry Officer myself, I can assure you his accomplishments, particularly while in training at TBS and IOC, are not as glorious as he makes them out to be. It's an easy and entertaining read, but best read with the understanding that Fick's picture of himself is embellished by his own delusions of grandeur.

[Susie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't think I liked this book so much at first, but when I reached the last chapter I started having an ache in my stomach. By the last pages it had reached the level of full on grieving. I don't know why, I guess it really got to me; the people, their choices and the honesty of it all. The guy is very reflective, and though I feel I would have liked to know even more about some parts, I'm still impressed with how much he remembered. All things considered.

I'm gonna go reread it now.

[Jon Koebrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

One Bullet Away is a candid, descriptive, and well-written book about an intelligent person becoming a marine officer and his tour of duty. Fick is an impressive fellow and his telling is a must read for those wanting to comprehend life as a marine and experiencing modern combat. Fick does an especially good job in articulation of the choices military leaders must make at the ground level. 4.25 stars.

[Deven · Rating 5 out of 5]

My friend Scott W. suggested I read this book, and wow, was I impressed. It is an excellent book on what it takes to be a Marine Officer. I was an Army Officer, I see a big difference. A great book on the struggle to excel and survive. If your into the military this is must read.

[Tristanb18 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this book was great before I joined the Marines. Now, I can't believe some of the things said in the book.

[Lena · Rating 5 out of 5]

So listen, Fick is part of the apparent minority in contemporary warfare that did not get lobotomized upon entering service.
He details his struggles with the injustices done to the Iraqi civilians, that’s more than a lot of soldiers can afford; most just pity themselves. So this is a fresh breath of air.
Further, he criticizes the military as a whole. Or why else would he retell the homophobic crap his drill sergeants spews, the racist carelessness of his higher-ups (aka „no I can’t wake the colonel just because some Iraqi kids could mortally wounded by us and need to be evacuated“ - cue a whole ass mutiny by the Marines to get these kids to safety BECAUSE ANYTHING ELSE WOULD BE A LITERAL WAR CRIME UNDER THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS). He literally says throughout the book numerous times that his faith in the military and the Iraq war 2003 gets cracks. His goal is less about finding some WMDs and killing, but more about getting the Marines under his command home as unscathed as possible. That is noble. Senseless killing ain’t.
That just as a small glimpse into the book. Also, what he tells and what Evan Wright does in Generation Kill are pretty much the same. I would argue this works to establish a certain level of legitimacy even if both books are life-writing (aka anything but 100% objectively factual).

In short, this is an informative book if you’re open-minded, if you’re a pro-war MAGA brainless thoughtless racist creature then you won’t like this